Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) within the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) have been urged to adopt integrated solid waste management approach to address the seasonal flooding in Accra.
Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Korle Klottey, said that approach was necessary to create a sustainable management of waste to ensure that solid waste did not end up in the drains, thereby contributing to seasonal flooding in Accra.
The MP made the appeal in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the Seventh Anniversary of the June 3 Flood Disaster.
On June 3, 2015, Ghana experienced the worst flood disaster with the combination of a fire outbreak at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle that claimed more than 150 lives and left scores of others injured/homeless.
Dr Agyeman-Rawlings offered her sincere condolences to the families of the deceased and said the various MMDAs needed to adopt an integrated approach among themselves to ensure that their waste was not swept into other municipal areas.
“For example, my Municipal Area, which is the Korle Klottey, is downstream to many of the others and a lot of the rubbish that you find coming through the Asylum Down drain does not originate from my constituency or municipal area,” she said, adding that it often choked the drains, which eventually led to flooding of the city.
She said Accra had a lot of seasonal streams but the planning of housing and other structures covered up those streams until the rainy season started.
“Accra is low-lying and the names we have actually reflect the fact that there are water bodies here like the Korle Bu, Sakumono, and Odawna,” she said.
Touching on factors that lead to flooding in the City, Dr Agyeman-Rawlings, who indicated that there were several factors involved, and mentioned the increase in population density without a corresponding increase in the volume or the capacity of the drains for water to find its way into the sea.
She said building on waterways and throwing of solid waste into drains were some of the contributory factors to the Accra floods.
“So, not enough is being done in terms of enforcement of the law with regards to the treatment of the waste, the segregation of the waste and proper disposal of waste,” she said.
“We are not seeing enough people being penalised for actually breaking these bylaws and other regulations that are meant to keep our cities clean.”
Dr Agyeman-Rawlings appealed to the MMDAs to ensure that their environmental laws were enforced to the letter.
She said seasonal flooding of Accra impacted on human lives, human security and the socio-economic wellbeing of constituents, especially those in the lower socio-economic class.
